Yes, a Republican Revival is Possible by Intelligent, Respected Women

The Gallup Poll shows that of registered women voters from October 8-28, 52 percent voted for Obama while only 43 percent voted for Romney. Think of the possibilities if Republican women were allowed to mobilize and genuinely contribute to the cause. The problem with this campaign, and perhaps of the party itself, is an apparent disrespect of women and their intelligence. When you think “woman” and “Republican,” many controversies come to mind.

Probably the most vocal female Republican voice is Elisabeth Hasselbeck, a co-host on The View. She tries so hard to make her points known. A lot of the time, the viewing public either sees her ideas beat down by the other co-hosts, or her head pat as her words fall flat. Sarah Palin, with her famous Alaskan Road to Nowhere, which led to the sequel, Presidential Campaign to Nowhere, is another forefront voice. She has a fun personality and spunky demeanor. This makes for great reality TV. Good politics, not so much. Then there’s Ann Coulter with her famous “retard” tweet. Did she ever apologize for calling the most powerful man in the world an inappropriate medical term? I think she should be held as a public example and contribute to a cause that helps those with genuine, defined, retardation. Hold women accountable for their words and acts. Making amends in public might restore people’s faith.

What happened to Laura Bush? Whatever you may think of her husband, she held her role as First Lady with confidence and grace. How have her projects with reading and libraries progressed now that she has moved out of the White House? No one talks about it. Nancy Reagan is more than just her latest health scare or fall in public. She is a true good wife as she supported her husband in office, made the White House a home with private funds and led the U.S. to have open dialogue with Gorbachev’s Soviet Republic.

If the Republican Party hopes to have a future, then women are the key. Treat them with respect, give them a genuine voice and consider the good women have done for this country.

No, the salesman of a product doesn't matter if the product itself is bad.

The problem facing the Republican party, if it has one, is the type of policy it's trying to sale to the American people.

Mitt Romney ran literally on a platform that was: "We should cut medicare so I can have a tax cut." Nearly everything else during the election was gratuitous (granted, sometimes horrifying) distraction.

The young people of today can hear the party's dog whistles, and understand what the coached, euphemism-laden rhetoric really means. You can't wrap that message in a pretty dress and a pretty face and hope it'll sale - FOX News has literally already been doing this for what feels like decades now.

No, at least not the current ones.

Women within the Republican Party do not seem to have an active voice in important political debates. They are not willing to put themselves out there as a critical voice in their own party, and so it is often the case that they are either marginal figures or completely absent in the political debate. In one debate alone, that of a woman's control over the rights to reproduction, they will not stand up and admit this is a central issue to them and fight to change extremist views in their own party. As a woman, I just know that they have the same reproductive considerations as all the rest of us, but they don't speak out.

Gender composition does not make a party.

The real problem the Republican party faces is not particularly a lack of any particular demographic, but the very reasons a lot of demographics have no interests in them. Whether or not you can get a few token members from these groups is irrelevant if you cannot fix the underlying issues- arguments over birth control, racism, and other prejudices are what keep such groups away from the party. What the Republican party needs to do is to confront its unnecessary biases and eject the dogma it has accumulated that is unrelated to its core principles.